Liver Pain / Discomfort

First time poster but long time reader. I have been doing the bulletproof diet since January which includes BP Coffee each morning with unsalted grassfed butter from a local farm (I live in Ireland). I use upgraded beans and upgraded MCT oil.

Everything was going fine until about 6 weeks ago. When I would drink BPC in the morning by about midday I would start to get a dull pinching like pain in my liver area. Very uncomfortable and worrying. I find on mornings if I don't have BP Coffee then I don't suffer that day.

Also, and this is interesting: When I have the pain - if I eat starchy carbs such as rice then within 30 mins there is immediate relief from the pain. This leads me to believe this might be something to do with ketosis?

Comments

Ketosis is stressfull on your liver! The liver is the organ that has to produce the ketone bodies. So after having you BPC this is exactly the time when you get into ketosis. and why the hell do you have starchy vegetables duriing the day when you are following the bulletproof diet?

Before following it any longer go to a doctor who know about ketogenic diets and who can check you liver....

May you be well, may you be happy, may you be healthy, may you be loved.

I seem to be ok if I exclude MCT oil from my day. I can have butter, steak, avocado and any other fats and I don't get that pain. Usually I would have 20 - 40g of carbs per day. On a refeed I would have about 150g. My job is pretty full on as I'm the CEO of a company.

If you are doing it right and if it was from ketosis you would have it during the night and all day long...

Well of course it can be the MCT.

Leave it out, see what happens.

If it is the coffee, try some tea instead. Mate tea or green tea. Better yet white tea if you want anti oxidants. You can try coconut oil and coconut milk if it works better for you but if things are kryptonite for you then simply avoid it.... like Superman does it. But still get the blood work done in order to make sure your liver is doing fine...

May you be well, may you be happy, may you be healthy, may you be loved.

I would avoid the coffee and spirits altogether for the time being since these heavily tax the liver. Lay off dairy as well (don't know if you are eating any). Milk thistle is good. Dandelion root, lipoic acid, and N-Acetyl-l-Cysteine are also good. Eat more leafy greens, especially dandelion greens if you can find them. Artichoke and beets are good too. Drink plenty of water. Lemons in your water is excellent, so good job with that. I usually add some lemon or lime juice to my sole in the morning. Have you had your Vitamin D3 levels checked? Getting enough electrolytes?

Liver bile dump from not having a gallbladder could be a cause of the pain. I am surprised that you don't get diarrhea. MCT oil is mostly absorbed in the stomach and doesn't effect the gallbladder, but in your case it might be a real possibility.

I thought I would update on this as I have sinced solved this and it might benefit anyone else with the same problem (see original post).

I had to stop bulletproof and start eating starch again while cutting out a lot of fats. The liver pain / discomfort went away. This lasted for three months before I decided to go bulletproof again but this time armed with a lot of information on the liver and its role in digestion.

I now have full strength BPC with brain octane and really good 100% Grass Fed butter that I found here in Ireland. The difference this time is I have now introduced something else 30 mins before my BPC and 30 min before bed. What is it? Fresh lemon, fresh ginger - nutribullet - add to hot (not boiling) water. I consume this first thing in the morning and last thing at night and stay completely bulletproof in between. As lemons and ginger are also rated highly on the BP Infograph then I think it is a good solution.

Thanks much for sharing your experience and how you solved it! I will give it a try.

I have something similar going on. I'm male/40s/gallbladder removed 10 years ago. When I was overweight, I had a similar liver-ish pain for a few years and then it magically disappeared when I lost 40 pounds (on the slow carb diet). In hindsight I'm wondering if that was my fatty liver! :-)

Now I'm dabbling with BPC and a keto diet. I have a similar low level but very spot specific liver pain/ache when I go into keto (twice now). It's hard to isolate this to any one thing but for me I suspect it's more the keto diet or nutritional ketosis rather than BPC.

I'm curious how you arrived at this concoction. Do you still take it or need it?

Also, do you know in your case what exactly is going on with your liver that caused the pain (or do you have a theory)?

Information on this website may only be copied, reprinted, or redistributed with written permission (but please ask, we like to give written permission!) The purpose of this forum is to encourage the free exchange of ideas. The entire contents of this website is based upon the opinions of the individual users, not Bulletproof 360, Inc. Individual posts are based upon the opinions of the respective authors, who may retain copyright as marked. The information on this website is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. It is intended as a sharing of knowledge and information from the personal research and experience of the community. We will attempt to keep all objectionable messages off this site; however, it is impossible to review all messages immediately. All messages expressed on The Bulletproof Forum, including comments posted to forum entries, represent the views of the author exclusively and Bulletproof 360, Inc. is not responsible for the content of any message.